Posts by ianscampbell

It’s interesting to look at fintech companies and the leaders behind them as a hallmark of the security world. Given the data that they’re dealing with and the regulations upon them they have to operate in a manner second to none in protecting their user’s data. Watching the ways that these CIOs are innovating to make their networks more secure and their teams more productive is a great example to live by.

Thinkstock As one of the original fintech companies, TD Ameritrade has leveraged technology to do business differently. CIO Vijay Sankaran says he’s well aware of that tradition. “This ability for technology to innovate is probably one of the most important things for us,” he says. “The cornerstone of that is how technology facilitates speed and how it helps with the prototyping and adopting of new paradigms.” Innovation is often portrayed as the mind spontaneously lighting up. But Sankaran and other innovation leaders say innovation happens in organizations that structure their people, processes and technology the right way. “As businesses mature, what ends up happening is a more execution and operation mindset can creep in. So you have to be very deliberate around how you get new juices and ideas flowing,” Sankaran says. [ Find out whether you have what it takes to be a next-generation CIO and how IT leaders transform their organizations for the digital era . | Get weekly insights by signing up for our CIO Leader newsletter . ] Although there’s no single formula that guarantees innovation, there are strategies that innovative CIOs and their IT departments employ to drive the kind of ingenuity that can […]

Automation is becoming more and more of a way of life in our business and departments – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. I’ve been involved in automation for a long time. A lot of people are concerned about this type of automation replacing human jobs but I’ve found that, instead, it has the ability to free up time and make real people even more valuable to the organizations for which they work.

How do you view automation in your department? Is it something that you’re utilizing to make your people more valuable or is it a way that you can reduce the size of your team?

More CIOs are turning to an emerging technology practice called robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline enterprise operations and reduce costs. With RPA, businesses can automate mundane rules-based business processes, enabling business users to devote more time to higher-value tasks. Others see RPA fitting into a larger context, as they take a more deliberate path to adoption, seeking to understand RPA’s potential to work alongside machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Here CIO.com takes a look at what robotic process automation really is, and how CIOs can make the most of RPA in alignment with business goals. What is robotic process automation? RPA is an application of technology aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a “robot,” to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems, according to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence . Inclusion of the term “automation” may cause some to confuse RPA with ML and AI. RPA can include ML or AI, but it is governed by set business logic and structured inputs, and its rules don’t deviate, whereas ML and AI […]

This is an interesting article about IT’s role in the ever changing scope of team communications among the organizations with which we’re involved. There’s always a demand for IT to “keep up” as trends change but, as the article states:

…there is seldom consensus between departments as to how their teams should communicate. In fact, different company departments often have a bad habit of walling off their communication.

The issue of “shadow IT” can be a big one. After all, how are you supposed to secure access to your network – let alone maintain your communications – when you have no control over the tools that your team is using?

Ever since the cloud, many departments have been bypassing IT and adopting solutions out of the cloud – often called shadow IT. Generally, IT still struggles with this as it related to all technology, including communication systems.

Unifying communications can help to ease the pain, but only if it’s done right.

IT can reduce the impact of shadow IT and add sanity to the otherwise communication anarchy by simplifying mediums, integrating communication platforms and consolidating channels when possible. IT that creates comfortable and easy-to-access communication channels reduces the chances rouge departments will deploy their own detached solution.

Take a look at the full article with the link below and check out how you can use unified communications to solve your issues with shadow IT.

Thinkstock IT faces a regular cadence of communication challenges. New technologies and platforms that facilitate office communication frequently enter the work arena. And office leadership challenges IT to keep pace, deploy better systems and re-architect old systems to suit the needs of different departments. However, there is seldom consensus between departments as to how their teams should communicate. In fact, different company departments often have a bad habit of walling off their communication. People have different communication preferences. Some prefer video chat, others face-to-face or email, or SMS. Similarly, people have preferred software environments: Google Chat, Slack, Facebook, Twitter, HipChat, Skype for Business, Asana, WebEx, etc. Those in leadership roles often make their preferences the standard for their team’s communication – even if that means adopting solutions without IT’s approval. Ever since the cloud, many departments have been bypassing IT and adopting solutions out of the cloud – often called shadow IT. Generally, IT still struggles with this as it related to all technology, including communication systems. What happens when a company has multiple chat platforms, social media and conferencing applications and other communication mediums? In such a situation, communication standards between departments is incredibly variable. As such, it […]

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